Knocking down obstacles and barriers is part of the firefighter’s job description.
Rosemary Roberts Cloud took it to another level.
Cloud made history in April 2002 when East Point hired her as its fire chief. For the 22-year veteran of the Atlanta Fire Department, it was a promotion with a unique distinction:
First female African-American fire chief in the United States. It was a major breakthrough, but, the East Point native suggested, firefighters’ primary role never changed.
“What we do is we go into a chaotic situation and we provide order, calm and a resolution,” Cloud, then 48, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time of her hiring. “I love it.”
She’d gotten a close-up look at the job while working as a paralegal for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society downtown. In 1978, the nearby Loew’s Grand Theater caught fire, and she was impressed by what she saw from those battling the blaze. Two years later, AFD agreed to hire more African-Americans as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit, and Cloud became one of the first women to join the department.
Credit: Leita Cowart / AJC Special
Credit: Leita Cowart / AJC Special
“Thundercloud,” as fellow firefighters nicknamed her, ascended the AFD ladder and was the assistant chief in charge of fire operations at Hartsfield International Airport (as it was known then) when East Point made its historic choice (as recently as 2017, the International Association of Fire Chiefs said there were only some 50 women fire chiefs in the U.S.).
At the height of her tenure in East Point, Cloud managed five fire stations and some 130 employees. She won numerous awards and appointments to prestigious groups like the White House National Security Council, while also implementing more than 20 public safety programs in the city of approximately 40,000.
After 12 years as fire chief, Cloud retired from the job in 2015. But her name and significance live on: On Friday, the city of East Point will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the Chief Rosemary Roberts Cloud Fire Station & Safety Training Facility at 2222 Ben Hill Road.
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